Q: What was Billy Graham’s first summer job after high school?
A: He sold brushes.
In 1936, Billy Graham graduated from Sharon High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Looking for a way to make money for college that summer, he accepted a job with the Fuller Brush Company. He joined his old neighbor, Albert McMakin, in selling the products door to door in South Carolina.
He wrote about the experience—and one unhappy resident—in his autobiography, Just As I Am:
“After my first week or two, I told [Albert] I was getting lonesome way down there in South Carolina, so far from home. ‘How about if we ask a couple of my friends to come with us?’ I suggested. He readily agreed.
“With enthusiasm I spelled out my plan to my high school buddies Wint Covington and Sam Paxton. They turned the opportunity down because they had already made other plans for the summer. Then I talked to my new friends Grady and T.W. They both accepted, so the three of us joined Albert on the road to sell brushes.
“South Carolina had one of the lowest per-capita incomes of any state back then. Staying in boardinghouses, where a room and meals cost $1 a day, we ate at the same table with a lot of coarse-talking, rough-living traveling salesmen. I’m afraid some of their uncouth attitudes rubbed off on me. One day in Lancaster, the boardinghouse biscuits were so hard we could barely bite into them. I got upset and fast-pitched a biscuit right through the kitchen door at the cook.
“Justice had its day, though. At one house where I stopped to sell, I rang and rang the bell. The lady did not come to the door, but she did go to the upstairs window. She saw me down there on the step, and next thing I knew, she had dumped a whole pail of water right on top of me!”
